Pakistan high court issues stay order against jail trial of Imran Khan: The high court in Pakistan has issued a stay order against the jail trial of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the cipher case. This decision comes as a special court was conducting the trial within the high-security confines of Rawalpindi prison. Imran Khan, the 71-year-old chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is currently held in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on judicial remand. His close associate and former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, aged 67, who is also implicated in the cipher case, is detained in the same facility. Both Khan and Qureshi have asserted their innocence regarding the charges.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC), consisting of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, delivered the judgment during the hearing of Khan’s intra-court appeal challenging his trial in Adiala jail. The IHC declined a plea by Attorney General Mansoor Awan, who suggested fixing the next hearing for the following day to present the entire case record. Dismissing this request, the court scheduled the next hearing for Thursday and directed a halt to the ongoing proceedings.
